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Kevin Shields is in control of a lot of things on the soccer field. The score, and thusly his team’s success, paramount among them.

Sometimes it takes having that control stripped away to realize a player’s potential. One wave at a time, Shields did just that.

Shields, The St. Augustine Record St. Johns County Boys Soccer Player of the Year, is ultimately in control on the soccer pitch. That’s good for Ponte Vedra, considering he’s the last line of defense for a team that, while loaded with talent, depends on him to be nearly perfect to let that talent perform. In the end, according to Shields, he’s ultimately responsible for the score.

“One thing people underestimate about goalies is the amount of mental strength you have to have,” Shields said. “You can’t let mistakes happen or affect you; if mistakes happen, you can’t dwell on it. You can’t sulk, you’ve gotta move on to the next play. Even if it’s not your fault, it always kind of is. If you’re a goalie, you’re the last man between the ball and the goal.”

One player striving for perfection in every game might seem like an unnecessary burden for just one player on an 11-man team.

Though he’s quick to give credit to his defense for Ponte Vedra’s defensive prowess, even his teammates stood in awe sometimes of Shields’ skills. Troy D’Alessandro, who played as a defensive center back, admits to having lost focus at times watching his friend and teammate stonewall opposing teams.

“Watching some of the saves he makes, I would just stand there and watch and stand there in shock,” D’Alessandro said. “There were times when I forgot to go back on defense because I was just in shock of some of the things he was able to do back there.”

His awe comes with good reason. During their state championship run, Shields and his defense allowed just one goal throughout the entire postseason — a 2-1 win over Sunlake in the state semifinals.

In the title game, Shields recorded nine saves against Plantation American Heritage in Ponte Vedra’s 2-0 championship victory. Perfection might be a heavy burden, but in the brief history of Sharks boys soccer, there hasn’t been a player more suited for the task.

Still, perfection is a burden. For Shields, soccer comes with daunting responsibility. The defense, the game, ultimately the score all depend on him in one fashion or another. That’s why a few years ago he and two of his friends and teammates, D’Alessandro and Michael Lee, started surfing together for a momentary escape.

“Soccer is something you can play every day, but with waves, you get excited when they’re good,” Shields said. “It’s something I can do to relax and take my mind off of soccer.”

With only about five minutes of driving separating them from the ocean, a trip before school or after practice was never out of the question when the ocean would allow it — and as any Florida surfer can attest, waves good enough to ride come along intermittently, at best.

This past week, wave heights throughout North Florida averaged about 2.5 feet. Compare that to some of the continental United States’ surfing hot spots, like Steamer Lane of Santa Cruz, Ca., that saw waves as tall as 11.5 feet at high tide. Though nearby Cocoa Beach has the claim of being birthplace to one of surfing’s greats, Kelly Slater, the First Coast, as a whole, doesn’t have much to brag about.

But it’s not the height or intensity of the waves that draws the three to the water. Being out, away from what comes with playing in one of the state’s most talented soccer regions beats any break or tidal surge that other locales may offer.

“What’s nice about being in water is it’s just you three and nothing else in world there,” Lee said. “Soccer practice and games are mostly business; in the water, we can relax and be who we really are.”

Each of their roles on the soccer field get washed away on the ocean. Shields is no longer the leader responsible for success and failure; winning and losing is a foreign concept. Though D’Alessandro has been surfing for the longest (he started as a 7-year-old, but stopped during middle school), he gives Shields a slight edge in ability over himself and Lee. Lee disagrees, insisting that D’Alessandro is just being modest.

The biggest change is in personalities. Shields can let loose and be the funny, easy-going guy that his friends know him to be in class and basically everywhere else besides the soccer pitch.

“(Shields) in the water is more of his personality, but the other side of him comes out on the field,” Lee said. “The leader in him comes out, never slacking off, letting other people know if they’re not giving their full effort.”

That these two polarities exist within the same person is nothing new. Becoming entrenched in a goal so daunting as perfection is an arduous undertaking, something that can consume a person if it becomes your only focus.

“Soccer is harder because we all have a goal in mind,” D’Alessandro said. “The high school goal is to win state, so each practice we have to play as hard as we could to get to that point, and that’s definitely more serious than when we’re surfing. Surfing is an escape from all of that and those stresses. School, home, anxiety, everything that comes with the high school and club season goes away. It lets us get away from those things and enjoy ourselves.”

Recently, the three took a trip to Costa Rica over spring break to surf waves that curled and fell with more regularity. As they graduate in May, their paths will break apart from each other into the next stages of their lives. Shields is headed to Lynn University on a soccer scholarship, the reigning Division II champions.

As they head in different directions for college, the three will only have what’s left of this school year and part of the summer to keep going to the beach to find waves.

There may not be much time left, but the impact has already been made. Though surfing didn’t make any of them a better soccer player, the time on the water already spent has made its mark.

“You don’t want to play soccer all day, every day,” Shields said. “Supplementing soccer with surfing helps me to relax and focus on soccer when it’s time to play.”